• University of the West Indies at St. Augustine

• FOUN 1101

The University of the West Indies
FOUN 1101
Caribbean Civilisation
Assignment 2: Book Report

The book which is entitled “Lucille Mathurin Mair” was written by Verene Shepherd who is a Jamaican
academic, a professor of social history at the University of the West Indies in Mona and was born in 1951.
Shepherd was the director of the University’s Institute of Gender and Development Studies from 2012 to 2017
and specializes in Jamaican social history and diaspora studies. The main character of this extraordinary book is
Lucille Mathurin Mair. Lucille Mathurin Mair was a valiant Jamaican ambassador, author, diplomat, and gender
specialist, and an activist who advocated for women's equality and against racism. She became the Nations' first
female Under General Secretary in March 1982. She died in Kingston, Jamaica, at the age of 85.
Moreover, Dr Mair was given the well-deserved honour of fifth recipient of the CARICOM Triennial
Award in 1996, because of her marvellous work as a diplomat, scholar, and a women’s right campaigner. Dr
Mair also received the OAS Women of distinction Award 1987 as well as the national honours of Commander
of the Order of Distinction and the Order of Jamaica. Additionally, this book gives us an incredible insight into
the strong, educated, exemplary woman Dr Mair was, being a diplomat, a women’s right activist as she stood
and advocated against gender inequality without giving up and a scholar. This essay therefore seeks to assess the
gender inequalities, racism, and colonialism.
Firstly, gender inequality was the major problem that was explored in the book and was demonstrated by
Lucille Mathurin Mair advocacy for gender justice. Gender inequality is a term that describes the legal, social
and cultural circumstance in which sex/gender decide diverse rights and nobilities men and women, which are
reflected in their unequal access and freedom of rights, as well as their suspicion of stereotyped social and
cultural parts. It can be seen in the book that it was in the university college of the West Indies that Mair’s
passion for women’s issues developed, where she began to believe more of the “infinite possibilities of women.”
(Shepherd 23). Mair's dilemma began when she requested a raise in her salary during her employment as a
warden at Seacole Hall. Eventually because of her persistence she was able to have an increase in salary where
she was also promoted. Unfortunately, after a request by Mair for a two-year secondment extension, it was
decline and therefore this led to her resignation from the institute. In Mair’s resignation letter she said, “this is
how my interest in the whole subject of women, their condition past and present developed.” (Shepherd, 27).